Amen. And let us turn our scripture reading for this morning. First Samuel chapter 25. And we will read beginning at verse 39 and reading through verse 44. Our text is say the middle of verse 39 through the end of verse 44 or Really, in some ways, our text is half of one verse. That's the second half of verse 43. And both of them became his wives. We're taking a little break, in a sense, from working through Larger chunks of the narrative as we usually do and we're going to we're going to zoom in on this issue what do we say about David's polygamy. What is what does the Bible say about this and. So in that sense we have we have half a verse for a text Lord willing we'll come back to the larger flow of the narrative in chapter twenty six next week but we'll begin our reading at the beginning of verse thirty nine of first Samuel twenty five When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head. Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to take you to him as his wife. And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michael, his daughter, David's wife, to Palty, the son of Laish, who was of Gallim. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We live in the age of America's so-called sexual revolution. We have already had premarital relations and homosexual relations thrown in our face for decades now. And sometimes the question is asked, well, what is next? And there are some who consider that polygamy and the closely related practice of polyamory are the next main battlefront. Consider a 2019 article by Christianity Today with this headline, polyamory, pastor's next frontier. These once taboo relationships are showing up in churches across the US. Indeed, while the LGBTQ plus movement has been thrown in our face for a long time now, according to that same Christianity Today article, by some estimates there are as many, 5% of Americans, who practice so-called consensual non-monogamy relationships as there are people who practice homosexual relationships. Sadly, This sin, even as it is called by some the new frontier, is not a new sin. We read of the sin of polygamy in the line of Cain before the flood. We also know that Israel fell again and again. into polygamy. Indeed, some therefore seek to excuse polygamy and even argue that it is not a sin at all. Here is a recent letter to the editor that came in to focus on the family. It included these words, quote, Why can't I have a biblically based family with multiple partners? Most of the great men of the Bible, Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, had many wives. Given your ministry's strong commitment to the Scriptures, I can't see why you're against things like polygamy and polyamory." Well, people of God, as we live in the midst of this sexual revolution, we're going to slow down here and look at one of those texts that's appealed to. David, after all, had many wives. What do we say to this? We're going to take some special care and attention so that we can spot the errors of our nation and we can answer the objections of our neighbors. For the Bible has much to say about polygamy and sexual immorality. The Bible has made it clear. God has not created us for sexual revolution. He has created us for sexual purity and he has commanded us to love instead of lust. And so our theme this morning is this, that lust is a treachery which brings many sorrows. And we're gonna look at that, especially in the context of polygamy, but we're gonna consider it in some broader ways as well. And our two points are this, it's treachery against God, and then it's treachery against family. Lust, and here we use the word lust to refer to uncontrolled sexual desire, is a sin. Or to say the same thing with different words, lechery, which an old dictionary defines as, quote, Free indulgence of lust, the practice of indulging the animal appetite, end of quote, is rebellion against God's law. Or here's one more way to say it, and this is our first point, lechery is treachery against God. We know this because God has made it plain that any relations outside of the marriage of one man and one woman are all various forms of sexual immorality and proof of a lack of self-control. We're going to turn to three passages. Please turn with me in your Bibles first to Matthew chapter 19. We're going to refer to a number of texts this morning. We're not going to turn to all of them, but for here, as we kind of lay the foundation, we're going to turn to three texts as we lay the foundation. look at Matthew 19, a New Testament passage which quotes from the Old Testament and then we'll look at one Old Testament passage and then we'll look at one more New Testament passage. So Matthew 19 verses 3 through 6. This is Jesus speaking with the Pharisees Matthew 19 beginning at verse 3 and the Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause and he that is Jesus answered have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh So they are no longer two but one flesh, what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. From the beginning, not three, not four, not two men, not two women, two, one man, one woman. This is what marriage is. Now let's look at one Old Testament passage. Matthew 19 is both, because it's a New Testament passage quoting from the Old Testament. Let's turn to Song of Songs. Chapter eight, Song of Songs, sometimes called Song of Solomon, chapter eight. In the beginning of Song of Songs, the of in the Hebrew can mean either that it's written by Solomon or that it's written to Solomon. I think chapter eight, verse 12, point out to us that this is written to Solomon. Song of Songs should be thought of as a rebuke of Solomon's A sin of polygamy. And here's the key verse for that. The third to last verse of the book, Song of Songs, chapter 8, verse 12. My vineyard, which is a picture in Song of Songs of the relationship with one spouse and another. My vineyard, my very own, is before me. You, O Solomon, may have the thousands, And the keepers of the fruit, 200. What is that saying? This is saying, here is true love. Solomon, you are rebuked. Here is true love. I have my one vineyard. I am satisfied. This is how God has made it to be. You can have your thousand, Solomon. That is not how it is made to be by God. Or now let's turn to one New Testament passage. 1 Corinthians 7. We had our assurance of pardon from 1 Corinthians 6. Now we'll turn to 1 Corinthians 7. And we'll read verses 2 and 3 and 9. 1 Corinthians 7. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband. Then jumping down to verse 9. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. Now the first context of that is is the condemnation of premarital relations, but the broader application of that, going back especially to verse 2, is that any relationship outside of one woman and one man who are married is a lack of self-control. They cannot exercise self-control. Verse 9. So that applies to Primerial relations, which is the first thing in view here in 1 Corinthians 7, it refers to polygamy and to any other form of sexual immorality, which is any relationship outside of one man and one woman who are married. We must repent of all of our sins because the lack of self-control, this is lust, it is lechery, It is against God's law. And so what can we rightly call it? We can rightly call it treason. It is traitorous. It is against God. It is rebellion against his law. It is treason against God. And it is a sorrowful thing to go against the ways of God. Any sin is rebellion against God. We must crucify our sins, to use the language of the Apostle Paul. If we do not, the sins we commit are part of the crucifixion punishment faced by Jesus Christ. That includes polygamy and all other immoral forms of treachery against God, and that includes all treason against God. Now, I'm going to refer to a number of passages. I'm going to have to turn to all of them. I do want to stop and ask this question. Is there a certain sense in which God allowed polygamy in the Old Testament? And this is going to be part of the objections that neighbors might bring, one of the few parts of the Bible they like to know nowadays in the sexual revolution. Is there a certain sense in which God allowed polygamy in the Old Testament? And the answer is a qualified yes. There's a couple of reasons for this. The first one is the fact that the people of God as the New Testament Church are now expected to be in a more mature position than the Old Testament of the Nation of Israel was in. The key text for this, the key chapter is 2 Corinthians 3. where the Apostle Paul speaks about how there was, in the days of Moses, a kind of veil over things, but now, with the coming of Christ, the veil is lifted. And then at the end of 2 Corinthians 3, here how the Apostle Paul speaks about how that should lead to a further transformation in the lives of the New Testament people than even the Old Testament people had. So this is the last verse of 2 Corinthians 3. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." So that's part of the answer. That's part of the qualified yes. God expects a further transformation of his New Testament people. The second part of the answer requires a deeper look at the law. So now if you want to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 21 and 22, I'm not going to read all these, you don't have to turn there, but I'm going to refer to three different sections of the Mosaic Law in Deuteronomy 21 and 22. Because the Old Testament civil penalties While they no longer apply to us in the same way, we're not living under the theonomy of the Old Testament nation of Israel. Those civil penalties and those laws, they still have much to teach us. And they still have principles which can be applied. And there are many civil penalties and declarations about sexual sins in the Old Testament. We're gonna look at a narrow slice of them. We're gonna look at three of them. We're gonna look at three types of punishment for different consensual but sinful heterosexual relations. The first one is Deuteronomy 22 verse 22, adultery. What is the penalty and the way that that sin is to be viewed? Well, the penalty is this, they are both to be put to death. If either one of them is married, if both are married, Doesn't matter. If it's adultery in any form, the man and the woman are both put to death. You might say, wait a second, wasn't one of David's wives already married, so he committed adultery? Yes. Why was David not put to death? Short answer, because Psalm 51 is not only a confession of sin, there's also one verse, Psalm 51 verse 14, where David appeals to God to remove his blood guilt. Quick summary of Psalm 51. God, I'm guilty. I confess my sins. Please forgive me. And then that's repeated and repeated and repeated. And then there's one verse where David is speaking not about his soul as much as he's talking about his body. And he says, God, please remove my blood guilt from me. And then he returns to a confession of sin language. Okay, so unless you appeal to the king or the king of kings, what's the penalty for adultery? Death for both. Now, what about What about premarital relations? Because that's also a lack of self-control. That's also sin. What is the penalty for Old Testament Israel tied to this? And that's in Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 28 and 29. And the penalty is this. The man has to pay a fine to the woman's father and they have to get married. That's a different penalty. It's not the death penalty. It's a much different penalty. Now this assumes that they are both God-fearing Israelites. The Old Testament does say different things when one of them is not a believer in God. But assuming that they're both Old Testament Israelites, that they're both confessing this sin, then the Old Testament law says The man will pay a fine to the woman's father and they should get married. Now, what about polygamy? What about polygamy? Deuteronomy chapter 21 verses 15 to 17. Do you know what the penalty is for polygamy? There isn't one. The law basically says this. a man has two wives, he should treat them and their children fairly. Now why is there no death penalty like there is with adultery? Why is there no fine or changed circumstance commanded like I mean, so in the case of premarital relations, there's some change that should happen. They should stop, start exercising self-control, and then get married, right? Polygamy, there's no law-required change of circumstance. It basically just says, be fair. What is going on here? What principles does this teach us, which could still be applied today for the New Testament Church? And why is there no required change for a polygamous situation in the Old Testament? Well, the short answer to that, part of the short answer to that, is that even though it is a messy and sinful situation, from Genesis, polygamy has been defined as sin because the marriage union is rightly only that of one man and one woman, but God allowed it because of the hardness of their hearts. That's part of the answer. The same thing that Jesus said in Matthew 19 about why there were stipulations about certificates for divorce. That's part of the answer. And just like those certificates of divorce, part of the answer is to protect the vulnerable people involved. What do you do? You just throw out the second wife and her children on the street? There's no way they could be provided for in Old Testament Israel. And so it's still wrong. It's still a mess. But in short, there's no easy remedy And so because of their hardness of hearts, God allowed stipulations in the law to protect from one mess being put on top of another mess and throwing the vulnerable out on the street to starve. That's part of the answer. It's a big part of the answer. We live in a messy world. Part of the answer is that not all sins are as gross as other sins. That's part of the answer. And so let's think about more. Let's take these Old Testament laws and the principles tied to these penalties and then think about how it applies in the New Testament. We're going to do that for all three. So first of all for adultery. what are some principles and then how that's applied. Well the first principle is this, adultery is an especially gross sin. And now we don't even have to take a principle, we can take teaching directly from Jesus as he continues his teaching in Matthew 19 verses 7-9 and we say this, adultery is such a gross sin, it's the only undisputed reason why a person, the one offended against, can get a divorce. So that's serious. Also, if the innocent party does file for divorce, Jesus says in Matthew 19, verse 7 to 9, then the adulterer cannot remarry. In other words, the punishment may lead to God's command for the adulterer to practice celibacy for the rest of his or her days. unless he remains married to the one who really is his or her wife. So that's, we don't even have to work that out through implication. That's said directly by Jesus Christ. Another thing is, you know, in many churches, including our Reformed tradition, adultery is treated as such a gross sin that it has certain consequences such as if a person in a position of office such as the position of minister commits adultery they they can confess their sins and still be part of the church, but you cannot be put back into that office. Now, why is that? Is there a verse in the New Testament that says, if a minister commits adultery, he can no longer be a minister? Well, there's no verse that says exactly that, but we're deriving this principle from the Old Testament laws and the ceremonial penalties, and we're saying this is such a gross sin that we may need to have some very stiff penalties tied to it. And that's just one example of how that principle has been worked out in the New Testament church. It is such a gross sin that it can require measures like that. And that's appropriate even though there's no one verse in the New Testament which tells us exactly to do that. Now what about premarital relations? Well, here, it's not very complicated. You know what we do? We take those principles and we basically do exactly the same thing. The only difference is the man's no longer required to pay a fine to the father-in-law. And that's the only difference. Otherwise, we do exactly the same thing. We take these principles, we say, okay, it's a lack of self-control, stop. And if you're both believers, get married. It's a little more complicated if one is not a believer, just like it was more complicated in the Old Testament if one was not a believer. But if they're both believers, if they're both confessing their sin, well, stop, start exercising self-control, and then get married. So we take the Old Testament laws and the ceremonies and the stipulations, and we say, how do we apply this in principle? Basically do exactly the same thing. Now, what about polygamy? What does that Old Testament, no death penalty, principle teach us? Well, you know, there's actually a widely agreed upon application of that principle in the New Testament church. In missionary contexts where the church goes into a polygamous culture and begins preaching the gospel, polygamy is condemned. It is made very clear to the second generation of Christians that you cannot practice polygamy. But for those who repent and believe and turn to Jesus Christ, but were already married in a polygamous marriage before they ever heard the gospel, basically every branch of the Christian church in missions has said, they can allow, you're not gonna throw the second wife onto the street. And that polygamous marriage is allowed in that sense to continue because it was in existence before the gospel entered the situation. And that's taking the principles of the Old Testament into a messy situation and saying, This is what we're going to do. And that is essentially the widely agreed upon practice of our own Reformed tradition and missionary context coming into polygamous societies. Now, just because we might say that polygamy is not as gross as adultery, in no way excuses it, and certainly not for David. This is not a missionary context. David should have known. He absolutely should have known. But he shows no self-control. He is a lecher. He commits treason against God in the sin of polygamy, 43B. And both of them became his wives. And you talk about mess upon mess. He was already married. But Michael was committing adultery by marrying another. I mean, what a mess. What a mess. and what treason against God and against God's law. Lack of self-control, lechery. And it's not only treason against God. Our second point is going to be briefer, but we come now to our second point. It's rebellion against God and it's God's law. It's also treachery against family. The sin of lechery. leads to tragedy again and again. It is sin against man even as its first sin against God. The sin of polygamy and lust destroys the intimacy of the marriage bond. It is a treason. It is a treachery against the spouse who has sinned against. It's also a treachery and a treason against the children involved. The rivalry of wives against each other and half children against each other is a common tragedy resulting from the treachery of lecherous Old Testament fathers. David should have known, he should have known the law of God, what marriage was established from the beginning, from the garden by God. David should also have known The rivalries created in Abraham's family by Abraham's lechery. The rivalry, though, thankfully, in this case with reconciliation, between the half-brothers, the sons of Jacob. He should have known the treachery, the tragedy, the death resulting between the half-brothers of Gideon. There, there's no reconciliation. There's only war and death. David should have known these things. They all should have been part of the warning in his heart against polygamy. But he did not heed God's word for what marriage and the proper place of love is. He did not heed the warnings worked out in narrative form. And what does this lead to? Well, in his own family, His treachery will lead to great tragedy. Some of that is recorded, some of it is not. What is recorded, beginning in 2 Samuel 13, is some of that tragedy between half-siblings, and it is terrible. One half-brother violates a half-sister. Two years later, that half-brother, Amnon, is killed by that half-sister's full brother, Absalom. The treacherous brokenness only continues from there. The rivalry between half-brothers, sons of David, as they seek the throne is a long and messy history. It's treachery against David. And then even after David's death, it's more treachery and more death between them as they continue to compete for the throne after his death. Sin so often leads to sorrow. and the sin of polygamy leads to great sorrow in the Old Testament. What is basically not recorded is the treachery of rivalry between David's various wives. He had at least seven before he died and many concubines also. But in this case is the evidence of his absence as the evidence of absence evidence that there really was no real intimacy. I think in this case we can say yes. From this point forward, what interactions between David and his wives is even recorded? Well, basically two things. Conflict between David and Michael, and political maneuvering between David and Bathsheba. That's basically it. The treacherous sin of polygamy has broken. the intimate, loving companionship that marriage was made to be, designed to be, by God between one man and one woman. Now, we're gonna turn the page a little bit because We're speaking much about polygamy, but we're also addressing the sin of the lustful lack of self-control in general. And so for further application, before we get to our conclusion, let's spend a little bit of time thinking about, well, what about within the marriage bond? Because many of our members are married appropriately, one man, one woman, praise the Lord. And many of our other members may hope to be. So we're going to kind of turn the page a little bit. And at this point, before we get to our conclusion, we're going to have some further application by thinking about the potential treachery of lust within the marriage union. Because marriage does not completely solve the issue of lust. It is possible for a spouse to overemphasize passages like Proverbs 518, rejoice in the wife of your youth. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 4a, for the wife does not have authority over her own body but the husband does. And Song of Songs 5 verse 1c, be drunk with love. To think that these passages would give any husband or any wife a right to impatient, lustful demands within the marriage union would be a wrong understanding. Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters who are married, brothers and sisters who are hoping someday to be married. When we think about passages like that, know also that there are passages which speak about how husband and wife can or even should go a time without coming together. Paul details one of those times, 1 Corinthians 7, a mutually agreed upon time for prayer. And Old Testament principles, okay, so remember, the civil laws, the specific civil penalties, they're not applied in exactly the same way, but they teach us principles, right? Well, what are principles within the marriage union? You know, the Old Testament law speaks about regular monthly breaks for seven days, at a time in the marriage union. That's Leviticus 15 verse 24. Again, that's a specific law which even has some ceremonial elements to it, but there's some principle there. That some kind of monthly break is not a wrong thing for that period of time. Or longer occasional breaks. This is prescribed in Leviticus chapter 12 within the marriage union. 40 days after the birth of a boy, or 80 days after the birth of a girl. And you think there are some principles there? Just as with the Mosaic laws we considered earlier, the exact observance of these laws is no longer required in the same way, but the ceremonial stipulations and civil penalties, and the civil penalties are severe if these laws are broken, They still teach us helpful principles. This is what the principle is. For various reasons, some of them health related, regular and irregular times of break can and should exist within the marriage union. The marriage union calls for love and not lust. Or let's put it this way. Because if this lesson is not learned, it is possible, especially perhaps for husbands, to become lechers even within the biblical marriage. It's possible for husbands to lust and not love their wives. I'm just gonna pause right there and say that's one of the things I was told before I was married that I had a hard time understanding. But it is true. And it's an important lesson for us to know and learn. Let's put it this way. It is true that a biblical marriage can and should be drunk with love, to take the language from Song of Songs, but drunk with love is not the same as drunk with lust. To be drunk with love includes qualities of love. And how has God defined qualities of love? He's done that in 1 Corinthians 13. And what does that include? It includes patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. David, as a lecherous polygamist, never even had a chance to learn about intimate love between one man and one woman in such a way. David, in a treasonous manner, robbed himself of this joy. But people of God, let's say this together. Is there hope for lecherous David? Is there hope for lechers? And while some sins are especially perverse, any sin is serious. Any sin is treachery against God. R.C. Sproul pointedly said it this way, quote, in my slightest sin, where I exalt myself, I am contributing to the whole cosmic complex of rebelliousness against God. When I sin, any sin, I am challenging the authority, the dignity, the holiness of God. It is an act of cosmic rebellion. It is an act of cosmic treason. I'm setting myself up as a law unto myself, and that is serious business. People of God, we all need hope. We are all traitors. We are all treasonous against God. There's hope for lechers. There's hope for sinners. It's only in Jesus Christ. And God has spoken to us plainly about what our sins are. Do not let cultural influences convince you that this is complicated. Do not let biblical illiteracy leave you defenseless against the current attitudes and arguments of the sexual revolution of our world. Let us see what sin is and let us see sin for what it is. Let us understand the treachery of lechery. Let us understand the treasonous nature of all sin. And let us understand that there's hope for all lechers, there's hope for all sinners, but only in the faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Repent, take refuge in Him, our only faithful spouse. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, God Almighty, we are grieved that we sometimes take the sins of those who repent and try to make that an excuse for sin. We are grieved that sin is not always taken seriously in our own hearts. and in the lecherous attitudes that are so pervasive in our world. But Lord God, help us to see what sin is. Help us to say with the Corinthians,